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Category: Persecution

BK-16 Prison Diaries: Varavara Rao on prisons as institutions of corruption, sadism and dehumanisation

BK-16 Prison Diaries: Varavara Rao on prisons as institutions of corruption, sadism and dehumanisation

To mark six years of the arbitrary arrests and imprisonment of political dissidents in the Bhima Koregaon case, The Polis Project is publishing a series of writings by the BK-16, and their families, friends and partners. By describing various aspects of the past six years, the series offers a glimpse into the BK-16’s lives inside prison, as well as the struggles of their loved ones outside. Each piece in the series is complemented by Arun Ferreira’s striking and evocative artwork.

Credits: Drawing by Arun Ferreira / The Polis Project

BK-16 Prison Diaries: Varavara Rao on prisons as institutions of corruption, sadism and dehumanisation

16/10/2024

The Polis Project / by Varavara Rao

The term “correctional institutions,” as prisons are sometimes known, is actually a misnomer. It would be more appropriate to term them institutions of sadism, dehumanisation and corruption, given that the whole system is rooted in these practices. The state does not in fact want the prisons to be correctional institutions like those shown in the Hindi films Do Ankhen Barah Haath or Bandini.
Read more


Also read:
BK-16 PRISON DIARIES: RAMESH GAICHOR ON THE ELAGAR PRISONER’ S DEFIANCE OF THE NEO-PESHWAI PRISON SYSTEM (THE POLIS PROJECT / OCT 2024)
BK-16 PRISON DIARIES: SAGAR GORKHE’S PARENTS ARE STRUGGLING IN HIS ABSENCE (THE POLIS PROJECT / JULY 2024)
BK-16 PRISON DIARIES: RAMESH GAICHOR’S PARENTS JUST WANT TO MEET HIM AGAIN BEFORE THEY DIE (THE POLIS PROJECT / JULY 2024)
BK-16 PRISON DIARIES: MINAL GADLING ON THE MANY CRUELTIES, IRONIES AND INJUSTICES OF SURENDRA’S IMPRISONMENT (THE POLIS PROJECT / JULY 2024)
BK-16 PRISON DIARIES: RUPALI JADHAV TRAVELS TEN HOURS FOR FLEETING EXCHANGES WITH JYOTI JAGTAP (THE POLIS PROJECT / JUNE 2024)
BK-16 PRISON DIARIES: JENNY ROWENA ON THE FEAR OF PRISONS AND THE BRAHMINICAL SYSTEM BEHIND IT (THE POLIS PROJECT / JUNE 2024)
BK-16 PRISON DIARIES: ANAND TELTUMBDE REFLECTS ON HIS ARREST AND INCARCERATION (THE POLIS PROJECT / JUNE 2024)
BK-16 PRISON DIARIES: STORIES OF LOVE, MURDER AND CHILD MARRIAGE FROM SHOMA SEN’S YEARS IN PRISONS (THE POLIS PROJECT / JUNE 2024)
BK-16 PRISON DIARIES: ARUN FERREIRA ON THE FARCE AND TRAGEDY OF THE PANDEMIC IN PRISON (THE POLIS PROJECT / JUNE 2024)
BK-16 PRISON DIARIES: VERNON GONSALVES ON THE STRUGGLE TO READ AND WRITE BEHIND BARS (THE POLIS PROJECT / JUNE 2024)
INTRODUCING THE BK-16 PRISON DIARIES SERIES (THE POLIS PROJECT / JUNE 2024)

Special NIA Court Allows Activist Gautam Navlakha To Visit Ailing Sister

Special NIA Court Allows Activist Gautam Navlakha To Visit Ailing Sister

Gautam Navlakha

Free Press Journal / by Charul Shah Joshi

On Thursday, the special NIA court allowed activist Gautam Navlakha, who is implicated in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, to go to Delhi for two months to care for his unwell elder sister.
Navlakha had approached the court for modification of the bail order granted last year, which restricted his movement to city limits.
Read more


Also read:
Gautam Navlakha granted bail by Supreme Court; orders him to pay 20 lakhs for the expenses incurred during his house arrest (cjp / May 2024)
Out on bail in Elgaar case, activist Navlakha and partner struggle to rent home in Mumbai (The Indian Express / Jul 2024)
The remedy of bail: From securing liberty to ‘digital jail’ (The Leaflet / Aug 2023)

A Professor & A Singer, Both Accused In Bhima-Koregaon Case, Discuss Hopelessness & Hope In An Indian Prison

A Professor & A Singer, Both Accused In Bhima-Koregaon Case, Discuss Hopelessness & Hope In An Indian Prison

Article 14 / by Stuti Shah

English professor Shoma Sen and singer and activist Jyoti Jagtap, both accused in the Bhima-Koregaon case, discuss the issues they experienced in prison, such as overcrowding, inadequate healthcare, and poor living conditions. They describe the lack of access to education, systemic inequalities, and the challenges faced by marginalised women and LGBTQ+ individuals in India’s prison system. Both women spoke of the importance of sisterhood and resilience and expressed hope for change.
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Also listen / read:
▪ Episode 18 of CJP’s Podcast Series RightsCast

en/hindi | 13:18min | 2023
By Citizens for Justice and Peace (cjp)
How does the Indian Prison system strip the women inmates of their basic rights and dignity? In a patriarchal society, within a prison system that’s designed to focus on male inmates, how do female prisoners navigate their incarceration?
Listen to this in-depth podcast on the conditions of women inmates in India’s prisons where human rights activists, Adivasi leaders, student activists, lawyers and citizens-in-resistance share stories of horror and explore the plight of women in prison.
Listen to the podcast

Video: Healthcare and Mental Health inside Prison | Sudha Bharadwaj | QUAID KE PARE
By Citizens for Justice and Peace
hindi | 5:51min
Watch video

‘Buzz of a Mosquito… But With the Sound of Grief’: The Lives of India’s Women Prisoners (The Wire / March 2021)

Book Review: Sudha’s Phansi Yard Diary

Book Review: Sudha’s Phansi Yard Diary

Poster by #bakeryprasad

Midday / by Meenakshi Shedde

The bail conditions do not allow her to leave Mumbai or discuss her case.
I am revisiting Sudha Bharadwaj’s courageous, revealing and inspiring book From Phansi Yard: My Year with the Women of Yerawada (Juggernaut Books, Rs 799 hardcover, Rs 499 online). Early one morning in August 2018, Bharadwaj was arrested. She is a respected trade unionist and human rights lawyer, who actually gave up her US citizenship and took up Indian citizenship, choosing to work for the rights of the poor and tribals in India, in Chhattisgarh and elsewhere, for over three decades. She was charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, UAPA, of inciting violence in Bhima Koregaon village in Maharashtra.
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From Phansi Yard: My Year with the Women of Yerawada
by Sudha Bharadwaj

Publisher: Juggernaut Books
Edition: Nov 2023
Language: English
Pages: 216
Some prisoners pray, some weep, some just put down their heads and work themselves weary. Sudha Bharadwaj watched through the bars of her cell, and she wrote. This is her remarkably granular account of the world of women prisoners in Yerawada Jail in Pune.Bharadwaj was incarcerated here, in a high-security wing called PhansiYard, from November 2018 to February 2020.
Read more/order


Also read/watch:

From Phansi Yard: My Year With The Women Of Yerawada, by Sudha Bharadwaj
Artice 14 / by Samar Halarnkar / Sudha Bharadwaj | Nov 2023

Arrested on 28 August 2018, human rights lawyer, teacher and IIT graduate Sudha Bharadwaj is among 16 accused in the Bhima-Koregaon case, charged under  sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860, and the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), 1967…
EXCERPT
On 1 November, I mark my second birthday in custody. Diwali was in late October this year, and Shoma Di has saved a bit of her Diwali faral (snacks, in Marathi) as a treat for me. She gives me a beautiful card with a hand-drawn Sudoku on the front and a ballerina ‘dancing away to her freedom’ on the inside. It’s an ode to my Sudoku mania.
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Video: Barkha Dutt speaks to Sudha Bharadwaj on her book ‘From Phansi Yard’
Mojo Story | Nov 2023


en | 21:03min | 2023
Barkha Dutt speaks to Trade Unionist, activist and lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj on her book ‘From Phansi Yard’. The book records stories of her time in jail. She is out on bail after 3 years in the 2018 Bhima-Koregaon violence case.
Sudha speaks about her days in jail and how her time in a women’s prison made her aware of the gender gap in legal aid. “Many women are jailed- because their husband committed some crime and are now absconding- they don’t even know about the crime,” she says.
Sudha further says that she lives in the house of a friend, as she “can’t afford rent”. Trade unions support her, she does legal cases for them, she says.
Watch video

A Cage with a View: Under-trial life in an Indian jail
National Herald | by Sudha Bharadwaj | Oct 2023

The jottings that make up this book were my way of coping with incarceration. Some prisoners pray, some weep, some just put their heads down and work themselves weary. Some fight defiantly every inch of the way, some are inveterate grumblers, some spew gossip. Some read the newspaper from cover to cover, some shower love on children, some laugh at themselves and at others.
I watched through the bars, and I wrote.

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Sudha Bharadwaj speaks – A Life in Law and Activism

Publisher: Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL)
Edition: January 2021
Language: English
Paperback: 316 pages
Access a free PDF copy of the book here (2,1 MB)

Surendra Gadling seeks contempt action against Navi Mumbai police

Surendra Gadling seeks contempt action against Navi Mumbai police

Surendra Gadling

Elgar Parishad case accused seeks contempt action against Navi Mumbai cop

25/10/2024

India Today / by Vidya

Surendra Gadling and 14 other activists have been charged in connection with alleged provocative speeches delivered at the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017.
An accused in the 2018 Elgar Parishad Maoist links case has moved an application before a special NIA court, seeking action against the Navi Mumbai police commissioner and reserve police inspector at Kalamboli headquarters for not producing him in court physically for hearings.
He also moved a plea seeking to initiate contempt proceedings against prison authorities for not providing him with a cot in prison despite the special court’s order.
Read more


Lawyer accused in Elgaar Parishad case seeks action against Navi Mumbai police

25/10/2024

The Indian Express / by Express News Service

Last week, Gadling and six others had gone on a hunger strike to protest not being brought to court for three hearings from Taloja jail where they are lodged. 
Lawyer Surendra Gadling, who is facing charges in the Elgaar Parishad case, filed a plea before a special court on Thursday seeking action against the Navi Mumbai police commissionerate stating that a government resolution on reserving police to escort undertrials to court is being flouted.
Read more


Also read:
Elgaar Parishad case undertrials on protest path for not being produced in court for successive hearings (The Telegraph / Oct 2024)

InSAF Webinar with Ajaz Ashraf on his book: Bhima Koregaon Challenging Caste (Oct 26)

InSAF Webinar with Ajaz Ashraf on his book: Bhima Koregaon Challenging Caste (Oct 26)

By INSAF India / @IndInsaf

Join us this Saturday for an online conversation with Ajaz Ashraf on his new book, Bhima Koregaon: Challenging Caste (2024).
Share widely, and we hope to see many of you there!
You can register here


Also watch/read:

▪ Video | Many Meanings of Bhima Koregaon: Ajaz Ashraf

By Daanish Bin Nabi

en | 20:12min | 2024
Watch video
Process as Punishment – Recent books that bear witness to the BK-16’s incarceration (The Caravan / Jul 2024)
Book Excerpt | How Bhima Koregaon Became a Trope for Dalit Pride and Assertion (The Wire │ by Ajaz Ashraf │ June 2024)

Demonising dissent: GN Saibaba’s death and the dark siede of UAPA’s manipulation

Demonising dissent: GN Saibaba’s death and the dark siede of UAPA’s manipulation


en | 13:32 | 2024

The News Minute / by Pooja Prasanna

From 2014 to 2022, 8,719 people were charged under the draconian UAPA. A majority are languishing in jail, with trials delayed and bail denied, as in the case of Professor GN Saibaba.
… In this week’s Let Me Explain, Pooja Prasanna looks at how jails mistreat people, how courts are complacent in denying justice and the blatant abuse of power by the police and governments where evidence and witnesses are fabricated or manipulated.
Watch video

Hunger strike called off for now | Not Produced in Court Despite Directions – Elgar Parishad Accused Go on Hunger Strike

Hunger strike called off for now | Not Produced in Court Despite Directions – Elgar Parishad Accused Go on Hunger Strike

Elgaar Parishad case undertrials on protest path for not being produced in court for successive hearings

20/10/2024

The Telegraph / by Pheroze L. Vincent

Non-availability of police escorts is a common reason for undertrials not being produced in courts across India
Seven inmates at the Taloja Central Prison in Navi Mumbai, awaiting trial in the 2018 Elgaar Parishad case, on Saturday evening ended the hunger strike that they had started on Friday to protest against police who didn’t produce them in court for successive hearings.
Read more


by Sukanya Shantha @ sukanyashantha (Oct 20)

Update: The hunger strike has been called off for now.
The prison officials submitted an urgent application to the court & have assured them that they’ll be a produced before the NIA court on Oct 24.
If the seven men aren’t presented then, they plan to resume their hunger strike.



Not Produced in Court Despite Directions, Seven Elgar Parishad Accused Go on Hunger Strike

18/10/2024

The Wire / by The Wire Staff

The activists have not been produced before the court for the last three hearings in the case. Seven human rights defenders facing prolonged incarceration in the infamous Elgar Parishad case went on a hunger strike on Friday (October 18).
The activists have not been produced before the court for the last three hearings in the case. Today, despite a court order, the Navi Mumbai police failed to provide an escort team to take the incarcerated individuals from the Taloja central prison to the special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court located in south Mumbai, prompting the activists to announce their hunger strike.
Read more

Hany Babu moves Bombay High Court for bail

Hany Babu moves Bombay High Court for bail

Former Delhi University Professor Hany Babu Moves Bombay HC For Bail In Elgar Parishad-Maoist Links

17/10/2024

Free Press Journal / by Urvi Mahajani

When the plea was listed for hearing before a bench headed by Justice Bharati Dangre, on Wednesday, it was informed that another HC bench had decided bail pleas of co-accused. The bench then directed the HC registry to take appropriate steps to list the matter before the same bench.
Former Delhi University professor Hany Babu, an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, has approached the Bombay High Court again seeking bail in the Bhima Koregaon violence case of 2018.
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Bhima Koregaon accused Hany Babu moves Bombay High Court for bail

16/10/2024

Bar & Bench / by Sahyaja MS

Babu was arrested on July 28, 2020, on charges of being a member of the CPI (Maoist) and being involved in an alleged conspiracy to attack Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Delhi University professor Hany Babu has approached the Bombay High Court again seeking bail in the Bhima Koregaon violence case of 2018.
Read more


Jailed academic Hany Babu moves Bombay High Court for bail

16/10/2024

Maktoob / by Maktoob Staff

Delhi University professor and human rights defender Hany Babu, who has been languishing in jail under the draconian UAPA since 2020, has approached the Bombay High Court again, seeking bail in the 2018 Bhima Koregaon violence case.
Read more


Also read:
Hany Babu completes four years in prison without bail, trial (Maktoobmedia.com / Jul 2024)
Ex-DU prof Hany Babu withdraws bail plea in Supreme Court (Hindustan Times / May 2024)

GN Saibaba’s death puts spotlight back on plight of incarcerated activists / Various Statements

GN Saibaba’s death puts spotlight back on plight of incarcerated activists / Various Statements

G.N. Saibaba’s 2017 Prison Letter Sheds Light on the Rights of Disabled Prisoners

17/10/2024

The Wire / by Sukanya Shantha

‘I have refused to be carried to a government hospital outside the prison because I was once treated like baggage.’
Professor G.N. Saibaba wrote a letter to disability rights activist Muralidharan from Nagpur central prison in October 2017.
It had been only a few months since Saibaba, a wheelchair user with over 90% disability, was handed a life sentence under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
Read more


‘Failing to grasp’ his immense pain, would GN Saibaba’s death haunt judiciary?

16/10/2024

Counterview / by Vidya Bhushan Rawat

The death of Prof. G.N. Saibaba in Hyderabad should haunt our judiciary, which failed to grasp the immense pain he endured. A person with 90% disability, yet steadfast in his convictions, he was unjustly labeled as one of India’s most ‘wanted’ individuals by the state, a characterization upheld by the judiciary. In a democracy, diverse opinions should be respected, and as long as we uphold constitutional values and democratic dissent, these differences can strengthen us.
Read more


People, politicians pay last tributes to Sai Baba

15/10/2024

Times of India / by TNN

“Long live, long live, Sai Baba long live” slogans reverberated as people paid tributes to the former Delhi University (DU) professor GN Sai Baba on Monday. Sai Sai Baba died on Saturday while undergoing treatment for a gall bladder ailment at Nizam’s Institute of Medical Science (NIMS).
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A Decade In Jail And A Death Foretold

15/10/2024

Free Press Journal / by FPJ Editorial

The death of G N Saibaba at the age of 57 is a severe indictment of the political system and the judiciary of the country that kept the wheel-chair bound academic incarcerated for nearly 10 years under the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act until he was finally acquitted of all charges by the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court earlier this year.
Read more


GN Saibaba death: UAPA has no place in a democracy | Mihir Desai Inverview | Pooja Prasanna


en | 21:40 | 2024
Former Delhi University professor and activist Dr GN Saibaba, who had become a symbol of state repression, passed away on Saturday, October 12, at the age of 58. This comes just seven months after his acquittal in a UAPA case which alleged that he was involved with Maoists.
…TNM’s Pooja Prasanna spoke to senior advocate Mihir Desai on Dr Saibaba’s death, UAPA and indian prisons. Mihir Desai as been the legal counsel for many who have faced UAPA including Father Stan Swamy and Dr Saibaba
Watch video


G N Saibaba was killed by wrongful imprisonment and medical neglect

14/10/2024

Peoples Dispatch / by Peoples Dispatch

Human rights defender and academic G N Saibaba was over 90% handicapped and during his years in prison was repeatedly denied bail by the courts and denied timely treatment for his various medical issues.
Human rights defender and academic, G N Saibaba (57) died on Saturday, October 12 at Nizam Institute of Medical Sciences Hospital in Hyderabad due to cardiac arrest. His death took place merely seven months after being released from a decade of wrongful imprisonment in Indian jails.
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When the state turns rogue even protests dry up, Salutes & Apologies Professor Saibaba!

14/10/2024

Sabrangindia / by Teesta Setalvad

If there is one unique and malevolent achievement of the present Indian state in its third, albeit less armoured term, it is, how it has through its venal acts, battered down alliances and voices of protest; GN Saibaba’s death after a long and deliberately negligent incarceration is the latest of one such
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GN Saibaba’s death puts spotlight back on plight of incarcerated activists

14/10/2024

The Federal / by The Federal

Dissent is not easy in India. After his acquittal this March, Saibaba publicly said he was repeatedly tortured and subjecte to abuse while in prison
The demise of former Delhi University professor and human rights activist GN Saibaba in Hyderabad on Saturday (October 12) has once again put the spotlight on the alleged injustice and torture being faced by the activists who are in prison under various charges like having links with Maoists.
Read more


Stan Swamy parallel in former DU professor Gokarakonda Naga Saibaba’s death after 10-year jail

14/10/2024

The Telegraph / by Pheroze L. Vincent

A polio patient, Saibaba was paralysed below his waist and developed life-threatening complications in his Nagpur prison that he blamed on poor living conditions and inadequate medical treatment. Saibaba had gone on hunger strike several times in protest
Former Delhi University professor Gokarakonda Naga Saibaba, a paraplegic acquitted seven months ago after spending a decade in jail on terror charges, died on Saturday of complications following gall bladder surgery at a Hyderabad hospital. He was 57.
Read more


The National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled expresses deep shock and profound anguish at the untimely death of Dr. G N Saibaba

13/10/2024

Countercurrents / by National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled (NPRD)

The National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled expresses deep shock and profound anguish at the untimely death of Dr. G N Saibaba.
It was just a few months ago that he was released after being incarcerated for ten long years. He was implicated in false cases and had to continuously wage legal battles before finally being acquitted by the Supreme Court. Unfortunately, it was a freedom that was short-lived.
Read more


Saibaba’s Death Was Institutional Murder by the Centre: Activists

13/10/2024

Deccan Chronicle / by DC Correspondent

Rights activists and political parties termed the death of Prof. G.N. Saibaba as institutional murder resulting from his incarceration for nine years. They drew parallels with Father Stan Swamy, an 84-year-old Jesuit priest and tribal rights activist, who died in hospital while in custody after being denied basic needs like a drinking straw and sipper.
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G.N. Saibaba’s Life Is Not Just a Chronicle of His Times, but Also What the Times Refused to Chronicle

13/10/2024

The Wire / by Saroj Giri

He was just letting us back into his life after all the pain and suffering he had endured. And then he was taken away.
We must now think of Saibaba as someone who could not finish telling us his story. We must have imaginary conversations with him, so that we can hear him. We gasped for Father Stan Swamy, for Pandu Narote, to commune with them. Now, we are gasping for Saibaba, who has been snuffed out of our lives so suddenly.
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Prof G N Saibaba a victim of our insensitive system

13/10/2024

Countercurrents / by Vidya Bhushan Rawat

The death of Prof G N Saibaba in Hyderabad yesterday should haunt our judiciary which were unable to rise up and understand the pain he was going through. That a person with 90% disability yet full of convictions was made as India’s most ‘wanted’ person by the state, equally endorsed by the judiciary as well. I have mentioned it many time that in democracy people might have divergent views and as long as we have faith in constitutional values and democratic dissent, these views ultimately strengthen us.
Read more


▪ Video: State’s Job is to Serve People, Not Punish Them: G N Saibaba


en | 38:33 | 2024

Newsclick / by Newsclick Team

Former DU professor G.N. Saibaba, who passed away in Hyderabad on Saturday, had recounted his harrowing ordeal during 10 years in jail at a press conference in New Delhi in March this year.
Watch video


Also read:
Some personal reflections on prison medical care (The Leaflet | Vernon Gonsalves | Apr 2024)
Was the trial judge who convicted G.N. Saibaba biased? We will never know, and that is part of the injustice (The Leaflet / March 2024)
‘It Is Only by Chance That I Came Out of Prison Alive’: G.N. Saibaba (The Wire / March 2024)